John Porter

Mentioned in a comment on this Instagram post by Benmont Tench.

jonregen @benmonttench Tell Ryan I bought John Porter’s U47 that he recorded Love Is Hell on!

Johnny Marr says he played John Porter's 1954 Telecaster on the first Smiths album.

A Mac G5 can be seen in John Porter's studio (second photo).

I was using the first Yamaha CX5 computer with MIDI ports when it came out. I was very into the old Atari computers running Cubase and samplers like the Synclavier and the Fairlight, and then the AMS and the Publison, and all those other subsequent digital recorders.

I was using the first Yamaha CX5 computer with MIDI ports when it came out. I was very into the old Atari computers running Cubase and samplers like the Synclavier and the Fairlight, and then the AMS and the Publison, and all those other subsequent digital recorders.

John Porter's favourite mic for guitar cabs is a Shure SM57, positioned right up to the grille at the edge of the voice coil. "That's as good as it gets, for me. If you'd like a little more room, a Neumann U67 is a great mic to put a few feet away, but there's all kinds of mics you can use.

John Porter's favourite mic for guitar cabs is a Shure SM57, positioned right up to the grille at the edge of the voice coil. "That's as good as it gets, for me. If you'd like a little more room, a Neumann U67 is a great mic to put a few feet away, but there's all kinds of mics you can use.

But, having said that, I do like small amps. I've used my old '59 or '60 Tweed Deluxe and my '59 or '60 Tweed Bassman more than anything else in all kinds of situations. AC30s and Marshalls and other things have been really useful, but the workhorse amps on probably as much as 50 or 60 percent of the guitar sessions I've ever done have been one or two of those amps.”

But, having said that, I do like small amps. I've used my old '59 or '60 Tweed Deluxe and my '59 or '60 Tweed Bassman more than anything else in all kinds of situations. AC30s and Marshalls and other things have been really useful, but the workhorse amps on probably as much as 50 or 60 percent of the guitar sessions I've ever done have been one or two of those amps.”

"Then I programmed a Linn Drum percussion loop and we brought in Andy [Rourke, bassist] and Mike [Joyce, drummer] and played it to them. I remember saying to Mike, 'Just try and hold the groove down, don't worry about fills or anything!' We rehearsed it for a few minutes and then recorded two takes, and I edited the best bits of each take together. They came back and listened and everybody [apart from Morrissey, who wasn't at the studio] said, 'Oh yeah, this is great!'"

I was using the first Yamaha CX5 computer with MIDI ports when it came out. I was very into the old Atari computers running Cubase and samplers like the Synclavier and the Fairlight, and then the AMS and the Publison, and all those other subsequent digital recorders. So when Pro Tools [Sound Tools] came out, I got into it. It was still primitive but it was still fascinating. I was recording to tape all the time, but if I needed to, I would edit in Pro Tools. Sometimes, if we didn't have long to make a record, using Pro Tools enabled me to have much more control after the fact. It was much easier than editing on tape. I would dump everything into Pro Tools, edit, and then dump the edited parts back to tape. I think there's an awful lot of hot air about digital versus analogue, given that the really important thing is a really good performance. How the music's captured is always going to be less important than a bad performance or a bad song. The medium is not the most important thing. The song and the performance are the most important things. I think tape is great but I've also found the quality of new tape, the last two times I've used it, to be very inconsistent… and, of course, using Pro Tools means you don't have all the problems we used to have in the old days with additional tape hiss during the mixing process.”

A Mac Pro can be seen in John Porter's studio (second photo).

Digidesign 192 interfaces can be seen in John Porter's studio (second photo).